Category: Make the most of life

Let go of unworthiness

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The sense of unworthiness, it seems, comes out of our being talked out of, trained out of, conditioned out of trusting our natural being. It is the result of being turned away from ourselves, taught to distrust ourselves. We are worthy of letting go of our unworthiness. If we did nothing but practice letting go of unworthiness, much of the stuff we’re working so hard to clear away would have no support system. We would have more room to grow. Consciously we surrender unworthiness as it arises, not entertaining it with the ego’s list of credits. the work which will awaken us is that of becoming keenly aware of unworthiness without judging it. 

Stephen Levine, A Gradual Awakening

Finding moments of joy

Karl Duffy1 Comment

 

Life will bring you pain all by itself.

Your responsibility is to create joy

Milton Erikson, American Psychologist,

Fields that nourish the soul

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A lot of our weekday work is centered on our achievements and that can become the narrow focus of our lives. But it is the heart that gives life and what nourishes us in the deepest sense. So our busy lives need to be interrupted by times when we revisit the heart and simply walk in wider fields. 

Be kind
to your sleeping heart.
Take it out
into the vast fields
of Light
And let it
breathe.

Hafiz

A new month: Living fully, without regrets

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File:Tully Cross thatched cottage.jpg

John O’Donohue told a story once about an occasion when he was still a priest and was sitting at the bedside of a dying man, offering his comfort and his presence. The man turned to him and said, with a great sense of calm, that he had no regrets, because he had taken a great big bite out of life.

It would be a significant thing if we could say that, not just at the end of life, but at the end of each day.

 Most people think they will regret foolish actions more than foolish inactions. But studies show that nine out of ten people are wrong. Indeed, in the long run, people of every walk of life seem to regret not having done things much more than they regret things they did.

Dan Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness

photo Linda Buckley

Sunday Quote: love casts out fear

Karl Duffy2 Comments

Will visit  the small 12th Century church in the countryside this morning, where one can see this statue of Saint Francis meditating. He had an inner freedom, similar to this quote.  Things arise and pass away. We are the ones who make a big fuss over them.  There is no need to shut down or contract in fear.

When you realize emptiness,

there is no fear.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

When things are not clear, be patient

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If each day falls

inside each night,

there exists a well

where clarity is imprisoned.

We need to sit on the rim

of the well of darkness

and fish for fallen light

with patience.


Pablo Neruda